Architect Gene Kaufman is proposing an all-concrete building at 100 Bogart Street in Bushwick, the better to fit in with the warehouses and factories that surround it. Inspired by the new David Zwirner gallery in Chelsea, Kaufman is using concrete to reflect the “intangible ‘vibe” and essence of the community,” he told DNAinfo. “We’re not looking to create something that doesn’t exist and hope people like it. We’re looking to create something that people already like.” (more…)

Berg’n Beer Hall will open its doors in a former garage in Crown Heights on August 27, as Grub Street first reported. The 9,000-square-foot space at 899 Bergen Street will offer food from Mighty Quinn’s, Pizza Moto Slice Shop, Asia Dog, and Ramen Burger for lunch and dinner, and locally roasted Parlor coffee and Dough doughnuts for breakfast. Berg’n will also have a 40-foot antique bar that serves locally brewed beer and pints of Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale. The beer hall is connected to 1000 Dean Street, a 150,000-square-foot former Studebaker service station that’s been converted to office space.

After two years of construction, 1000 Dean Street held its formal ribbon cutting ceremony this morning to celebrate the April opening of the renovated and repurposed Studebaker service station. The 150,000-square-foot building has 29 tenants to date, including artists, architects, filmmakers, publishers and a yoga studio. And on the ground floor, a 9,000-square-foot beer hall, Berg’n, will host four Smorgasburg vendors — Mighty Quinn’s, Asia Dog, Ramen Burger and Pizza Moto — as well as a coffee bar and a smaller private dining space. BFC Partners and Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group co-developed the $30 million project with Brownstoner’s Jonathan Butler. The renovation, which features two new light wells in the center of the building, was designed by Selldorf Architects.

“We’re really optimistic about the economic impact for the neighborhood and for Brooklyn,” said Butler. “They say it takes a village, and it took so much help and cooperation from the electeds, community groups, EDC and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce to get this done.”

Several elected officials and community leaders attended the event, including Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, Councilmember Laurie Cumbo, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President Carlo Scissura and NYCEDC Chief Operating Officer Zac Smith, as well as members of Community Board 8.

“Crown Heights is rivaling many of our neighborhoods for the title of Brooklyn’s crown jewel, and 1000 Dean Street certainly adds to its luster,” said Adams. “This new hub for small business innovation will be a hot spot for our creative economy and innovative entrepreneurs, many of whom simply need a little space in order to blossom and thrive.”

For information on renting offices like this one, please contact Chris Havens at chavens@aptsandlofts.com.

When we designed the conversion of 1000 Dean into offices, we assumed that most of the demand would be from smaller tenants and indeed that has been the case to date. But there are three large units in the building, none of which have been formally listed yet, that we wanted to tell Brownstoner readers about before distributing more widely.

As some of you may recall, we signed a lease early on with 3rd Ward to house the food incubator that the Bushwick-based company was planning to build. Well, we all know how that story ended. We’d carved out over 40,000 square feet of space in the main building of 1000 Dean for 3rd Ward — about 28,000 on the ground floor and another 18,000 or so on the second floor. Both spaces are now available, separately or together. We’re hoping that the second floor space, which takes up the eastern side of the building, will be turned into a coworking office. Both spaces have 14 foot ceilings, lots of windows and beautiful round columns.

The other biggie is the former one-story loading dock just to the west of the main building on Dean Street. It has has very high ceilings and currently sports three large garage door openings and curb cuts. It’s got about 8,000 square feet of space and connects at the back to the main hallway of 1000 Dean, which in turn connects to Berg’n, the Brooklyn Flea-run beer hall and food court that fronts on Bergen Street. It would be great for a theater, a food production use or a company that wanted to be able to engage the public at street level for any reason.

All three spaces are asking for rents in the high $20s per square foot per year. Interested parties should contact Chris Havens at chavens@aptsandlofts.com.

Brownstoner publisher Jonathan Butler’s project at 1000 Dean Street, developed in partnership with BFC Partners and Goldman Sachs’ Urban Investment Group, opens its doors today in Crown Heights. The 150,000-square-foot converted Studebaker service station has just received its temporary certificate of occupancy and is ready to begin welcoming tenants. The first 24 tenants will move in within the next couple weeks.

While the building is 50 percent leased, commercial space is still available in sizes ranging from 780 to 10,000 square feet. Chris Havens of Aptsandlofts.com is handling the leasing. And Berg’n, the 9,000-square-foot beer hall on the ground floor, plans to open next month with four Smorgasburg food vendors — Mighty Quinn’s, Ramen Burger, Asia Dog and Pizza Moto. The bar will feature a list of beers from around the world selected by Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver, as well as a full coffee and pastry bar. There will also be an 80-seat outdoor courtyard and an 800-square-foot event space for private functions.

Architect Annabelle Selldorf designed both 1000 Dean Street and Berg’n. We’ve included some interior photos after the jump.

We’re just an inspection or two away from being able to open the doors at 1000 Dean, the former Studebaker Service Station in Crown Heights that we bought in 2012 with BFC Partners and Goldman Sachs’ Urban Investment Group and have been renovating ever since. To give potential tenants a better sense of the 150,000-square-foot building’s possibilities, a few weeks ago we hired the Mary Howard Studio and photographers Jenny Gage and Tom Betterton to style and shoot, respectively, scenes from within the spaces.

We’re including a few of the photos here, but you can see more on this blog post over at the new 1000Dean.com. If you’re interested in becoming part of the 1000 Dean community, you can check out listings at aptsandlofts.com or email Chris Havens at CHavens@aptsandlofts.com.

Also in the home stretch is Berg’n, the 9,000-square-foot beer hall we’re building on the ground floor of 1000 Dean that will feature four Smorgasburg favorites — Mighty Quinn’s, RamenBurger, Pizza Moto and Asia Dog — on a seven-day-a-week basis along with a list of beers from around the world curated by Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver and a full coffee and pastry bar. The best way to follow along with the beer hall progress is to “like” the Berg’n Facebook page.

It’s been about a year and a half since we teamed up with BFC Partners and Goldman Sachs’ Urban Investment Group to buy the old Studebaker Service Station at 1000 Dean Street in Crown Heights and convert it into office and studio space. Construction’s been under way since May 2012. We began preleasing office space at the end of the summer and already have a number of leases, mostly for spaces in the 1,000- to 4,000-square-foot range, signed and in the works.

The renovation is almost done and we are targeting a January occupancy so we thought it would be a fun time to show some updated photos of the project. (We’ve also included a couple of photos on the jump of the Brooklyn Flea beer hall under construction on the Bergen Street side of the property.)

If you are in the market for Brooklyn office space, there are still plenty of smaller units available on the second and third floors (like this listing and this listing) and up to 35,000 per floor on the ground floor and fourth floor. Please contact Chris Havens of aptsandlofts.com at chavens@aptsandlofts.com for more information or to arrange a viewing. (more…)

This is an exciting moment for us. It’s been about 16 months since we teamed up with BFC Partners and Goldman Sachs’ Urban Investment Group to buy the old Studebaker Service Station at 1000 Dean Street in Crown Heights. When we first envisioned the project back in the summer of 2011, the real estate market had not fully recovered from the the doldrums of 2009 and 2010 and the 150,000-square-foot former garage and storage facility located in a M-1 zone on the western edge of Crown Heights struck us as a great opportunity to create a hub of economic activity in an area without any real commercial anchor but clear signs of potential. Our vision included about 100,000 square feet of Dumbo-style office and studio space on the three upper floors anchored by food-oriented uses on the ground floor. We had planned all along to do a beer hall and food court in the 9,000-square-foot one-story building on the Bergen side of the property (see photo of the restored facade below) and were thrilled to ink a deal with 3rd Ward shortly after closing on the property to build a 25,000-square-foot food incubator and educational space on the ground floor of the main building.

So we’re now thrilled to announce that leasing for the office spaces has just begun. We’ve pre-built some spaces on the second and third floors and left the fourth floor open for larger uses. Between all the floors, we can accommodate tenants looking for anywhere from 500 to 30,000 square feet; pricing ranges from the low $20s to high $20s per square foot depending on size, views, etc. Interested parties can check out the Aptsandlofts website and get in touch with Chris Havens, the broker in charge of leasing, by email at chavens@aptsandlofts.com.

While you’re at it, you might want to check out this great slideshow Gothamist did over the weekend of the interior of the building, including some nice shots of the beer hall under construction.(more…)

It’s been a long time since we’ve blogged about the progress at 1000 Dean Street, our joint venture with BFC Partners and Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group to convert the former Studebaker Service Station into a vibrant commercial center in Crown Heights. (Here’s the post from last year announcing the project.) As you may have read, the ground floor of the building will end up containing a 25,000-square-foot kitchen incubator being built and run by 3rd Ward as well as a 9,000-square-foot beer hall and food court featuring a handful of Smorgasburg and Brooklyn Flea vendors. The three upper floors (of roughly 35,000 square feet each) have been designed to accommodate a wide range of commercial tenant sizes, from 700 square feet up to a full floor. We are hoping that these will be ready for occupancy sometime this fall. If you are a large tenant, please email Chris Havens at chavens@aptsandlofts.com and if you are a smaller tenant please fill out this survey to be contacted when leasing is beginning for smaller spaces. In the meantime, please enjoy some construction photos on the jump, some of which show off the two light wells that we are cutting into the middle of the building. And for comparison’s sake, check out the facade of the building when we started.(more…)

It’s a bit meta to reblog a New York Times story about oneself, but such is the predicament that yesterday’s piece by Liz Robbins, “Kings of a Small-Batch Empire in Brooklyn,” puts us in. It was obviously a huge honor and hugely satisfying to have the paper of record do such a deep dive into the various business endeavors that we’ve spent the past few years working on. (And to note for the record that it all started right here with this blog!) While the ink about 1000 Dean Street and the Brooklyn Flea beer hall and food court was more than welcome, it was particularly cool to have a journalist look at The Flea and Smorgasburg as the business incubators that they really are. There is such entrepreneurial spirit in Brooklyn right now and it’s incredibly satisfying to be playing a part in it. Interested, as always, in everyone else’s reaction.Kings of a Small-Batch Empire in Brooklyn [NY Times]

Things have been busy over at 1000 Dean, the commercial conversion of the old Studebaker Service Station in Crown Heights that we announced back in April. The facade restoration is largely complete (no new windows yet though) and, as the photos above and after the jump below indicate, the original Studebaker sign has been restored. It’s also fun to see the interior space now that all the storage boxes have been removed. It’s really quite beautiful. The website, 1000Dean.com, is also now live, with lots of information about the project as well as a link to indicate interest in office or studio space when the building comes online next year.(more…)

We kicked off our blogging coverage of 1000 Dean Street a few weeks ago with news that the scaffolding had gone up on the Dean Street facade in anticipation of beginning facade work. We’re pleased to report that the repair of that front of the building is now complete and its been painted its final light gray color. (The new windows will come later.) Next up for repair: the western exterior wall. In case any of you are scratching your heads wondering what the back-story is, you can read the blog post from April in which we announced the project–a joint venture with BFC Partners and Goldman Sachs to convert the old Studebaker Service Station into a hub for creative commercial activities. Stay tuned in coming months as the renovation action really heats up. If you’d like to register to be contacted when the building is ready for leasing, click here.